Call-in show: How vacation rentals are changing the tourism business Up North

A search on Airbnb for nightly rentals in Traverse City brings up a wide variety of options.

Credit Airbnb.com

All over the world, vacation rental websites like Airbnnb, VRBO and homeaway.com are changing the way people travel. The websites promise you’ll get a more “authentic” travel experience when you stay in someone’s home instead of a hotel.

But opponents say there’s a downside to vacation rentals. They’re hurting those in the traditional hospitality industry, and they may be hurting people who are looking for a rental apartment or home to live in long-term. The conflict is felt especially hard in tourist hotspots, like northern Michigan, where websites like Airbnb have become very popular in recent years.

In this hour-long call-in program, we hear from Heather Rassel, a businesswoman who uses Airbnb to rent out a cottage on her property. We also hear from Peter Fitzsimons, executive director of the Petoskey Area and Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Dr. Dan McCole, an associate professor at Michigan State University’s Department of Community Sustainability.

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53:55

Renting out rooms via websites like Airbnb is a good way for people in northern Michigan to make some extra money. But opponents say the practice comes at a cost.

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Traverse City planners say the city's laws on short-term vacation rentals are outdated.

The current rules outlaw renting your home for less than 30 days, unless you're an approved "tourist home." A tourist home is like a traditional bed and breakfast. The law says you can rent a room in your house for up to a week, but you must be present in the home and you must get a license first.

But City Planner Missy Luick says the popularity of websites like Airbnb has led many people to rent rooms illegally.

When Godwin Ndosi first heard the word "Airbnb," he said, "Airbnb? Is that the name of a person?

Now it's the way he makes his living.

His introduction to the accommodations rental website came a year ago. Ndosi, a 23-year-old from Arusha, Tanzania, runs a safari business. A client had nowhere to stay after his hotel plans fell apart, so Ndosi invited him to spend the night at his pad.

Online rental brokers like Airbnb, VRBO and Flipkey in San Francisco may be finding some success renting to visitors on a nightly basis, but people concerned about a shrinking rental market have turned to legal action and protests.

In the city's North Beach neighborhood, for example, protesters recently gathered around a three-unit apartment with flats an online broker rents to vacationers. This used to be the rent-controlled home of elderly tenants until out-of-town investors bought the building and evicted the residents.